When provided with fecal pellets from uninfected (control) rats and rats infected with the
tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta, more fed and starved (72 h) female and starved male Tenebrio molitor
fed on fecal pellets from infected- than from control rats; compared to fecal pellets from controls rats, fed
males avoided the infective fecal pellets. Uninfective and infective fecal pellets had similar moisture
contents, so increased coprophagic activity was not due to differences in moisture content. Fed and
starved males and females were fed on fecal pellets containing tapeworm eggs and examined for
cysticercoids. Significantly greater numbers of starved beetles than fed beetles were infected with
cysticercoids, but the numbers of infected males and females within each treatment were not
significantly different. On the other hand, males contained significantly greater numbers of cysticercoids
than did females, and there was no significant difference between the numbers of cysticercoids recovered
from fed and starved beetles. The data support the hypothesis that the feeding behavior of T. molitor on
rat feces is altered by the presence of tapeworm eggs. The data demonstrated further that transmission
dynamics are affected by a complex interaction of the beetle's sex and nutritional status.

ISSN:

0020-7519 (print)

URI:

http://hdl.handle.net/1811/37268

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